Daily Archives: May 2, 2011

This time of year it isn’t unusual to get rained on here in the suburbs of Hell, but it usually is a brief storm with a day’s or sometimes several days’ worth of rain in a few minutes or at most an hour, and then nothing for the rest of the day. That’s not the case today. It started raining last night about midnight here at WoaB World HQ and has bee raining slowly but steadily ever since. Since I have errands to run this afternoon that means my fenders are going to be used for more than just shiny decorations today, and also that my rain gear is going to get used as something other than a windproof outer shell. It’s actually cold enough to require rain gear today. To say this is an unusual spell of weather for this location is understatement.

Moving along by distance (more or less) today we have 2 links to the ride for a fallen cyclist in Austin over the weekend. Cyclists ride in remembrance of friend and Friends pay tribute to cyclist killed in hit and run The facts in this case support the supposition that the driver was asleep or drunk when he hit the drastically over-lighted cyclist. Note in spite of reports that the cyclist was not wearing a helmet there has been nothing released that indicated he died of head trauma or even had a scratch on his head. What killed this cyclist was not a lack of a helmet, it was a drunk or distracted or drowsy driver at the wheel of a dark-colored SUV.

Another hit-and-run murder of a cyclist in the Carolinas. Cyclist killed in S. Charlotte hit-and-run At least this wreck had witnesses who could ID the vehicle, somewhat. This was a 2-part wreck, something on the road took the cyclist down, and then the motor vehicle hit him while he was down. All I can say is to avoid watch for bad road conditions. Oh, and don’t read the comments.

Another wreck caused by road conditions in the Carolinas. Bicyclist injured after crash on Blue Ridge Parkway Given the recent bad weather that just moved through the area there may be light debris on most roads that would normally be used by bicycles, so be sharp over there guys.

The rest of the post is LifeStyle and Infrastructure! articles, with our first link having a bit of both as I post the link. Kelowna News The first 3 reports from this one link have news about an infrastructure closing and 2 lifestyle articles before going off in another direction about a funeral. What you may see is dependent on how fast you can click over there… ;)

The article makes conclusions starting from their premise, but the fun stuff mentioned in the link is still fun even if it does come from faulty logic. Annual Wildomar Bicycle Safety Event Striving To Save Lives The young man died of massive internal injuries but because he didn’t have any head injury and he wore a helmet we should all wear a helmet, can you see the fallacy in this statement? I won’t bore you with the details, but there are more than one.

TN is still trying to get the laws to protect cyclists and other vulnerable road users from more lethal devices. Bill would boost safety for cyclists across Tennessee Basically it says that if you hit a vulnerable user and that user should have been avoidable had you seen him/her and there was nothing that should have impaired your seeing that user outside your vehicle, then you’re at fault in the wreck and have committed a crime. Or in simpler terms it takes “I didn’t see him” from a get out of jail free card into an admission of guilt, as it should be. About the only time this doesn’t place most of the blame on the driver is in situations of reduced visibility, such as night with an unlighted road user, or during fog or heavy rain, and in cases of fog or heavy rain there is still the “due care” provision that requires drivers to “not hit anything” by reducing speed in those conditions. Now all that’s needed is for LEO to actually use these laws, something they have shown reluctance to do in the past with previous laws to protect cyclists. Search the archives for TN wrecks for examples of what I mean.

And final link, MD has filled a critical gap in their laws between failure to yield and vehicular homicide. Maryland adds protection for cyclists The bill which is expected to avoid veto would create a new crime that is more heavily punished than failure to yield but much less than vehicular homicide, the new law allows a fine of $5000 and up to 3 years in prison, which was a huge step up from the maximum $300 fine with no jail or prison for failure to yield.